RagnaStats is a project to improve the user experience for players of Ragnarok Online by utilizing 3rd party programs. While most people agree bots damage many aspects of the game, the complete lack of support for 3rd party development is the real problem to blame. Yes, spambots are annoying, but it's obvious we can't rely on any "official" solution, which have all wound up mediocre at best. Sure, there's chat filters, but they're all client side while bots send packets directly to the server. Sure, you can ignore them, but you need to click on each spammer individually and there's always more than 30 in Prontera. Oh, and don't even think about switching maps—your ignore list will be gone.

It's not just the spambots either. There's always those annoying bots taking over maps, even kill stealing you! But think, where do those spammers get all their money? The very same bots you've come to loathe. Now this is just speculation, but maybe if all those spammers didn't get so many chances to plug their sites in game, they wouldn't have nearly as many customers. Maybe if everyone in game had the ability to make a few million here and there without grinding for hours, spending that $5 wouldn't seem like such an easy way out. Just speculation...

Either way, that's enough ranting, here's some other information you might be interested in.

Transparency

The collaborators and developers of RagnaStats agree, tranparency is one of the most important aspects of any project, organization, or business in the modern era. It open doors for new potential developers, and gives the average user an idea of how and where a project is going. For years, players have made thousands of suggestions to Gravity on ways Ragnarok could be improved or made more fun. Unfortunately, less than 1% (probably way less), of these ideas are ever considered. It's not even that the ideas are inherently bad, but rather players are unable to make requests which are easy to impliment by Gravity without a deep understanding of what's going on behind the scenes.

While other sites leave you in the dark about the last time any changes were made, features in development, or even suggested ideas, RagnaStats strives to let you in on all the action. A single person can't change the world, it takes collaboration and the guidance of others to create truly useful projects. If you have any ideas at all, we'd love to hear them, and don't be surprised if it only takes a couple days to see them become a reality.

Creativity

Back on the topic of bots and 3rd party programs, any player has the limitless potential to create new ways of enriching the gaming experience for others. While most people hate bots, they don't hate RagnaStats, Ragial, Prontera.ru, RPOD, or Snipah because they all provided a useful service. A bot doesn't have to be a killing machine, they can just as easilly be considered an extremely flexable NPC. Imagine an NPC which follows you on a quest instead of just standing around telling you to find items. Imagine an NPC which drops items across maps like a treasure hunt. Imagine, well, anything you want!

Market Bot is a good example of a player-created NPC people really appreciate. Sometimes real players control him and find people wandering helplessly through shop after shop. "Looking for something?" they ask the stranger. It only takes a couple seconds until they know exactly where to look for the cheapest prices. Other successful player-created NPCs include the lovely Smooch Bot, and Bot Pong. Smooch Bot spent her short life kissing everyone she saw in Prontera until the GMs banned her after a few weeks, while Bot Pong (video to the right) was an interactive mini-game playable anywhere.

History

RagnaStats began as a simple project called market.wetfish.net in late 2008, shortly after the launch of Valkyrie. At the time we were the only market site to cover the new server, growing quickly with more than half of Valkyrie's population using our service daily. As we grew, so did the number of feature requests, complaints, and bugs, until eventually the project became the first incarnation of RagnaStats. Unfortunately, in mid-2009 our server had to switch to a new hosting location and human error (or rather, laziness) led to a very prolonged downtime.